We are working with Julies Bicycle to monitor our carbon emissions using their Industry Green Tool, which involves entering figures for our consumption of electricity, water, and consumables as well as figures on staff and audience travel in to their website on a monthly basis. April was the first month in out new building on Ashwin Street where we have had enough data to start using their monitoring tool again. Arcola Theatre’s carbon footprint for April 2011 was equal to 3 tonnes of carbon dioxide, that’s 0.38 kg CO2e per seat, per show. The average person in the UK will emit 10 tonnes of CO2e per year, if Arcola Theatre continues with these emissions throughout the year our annual carbon footprint would be 36 tonnes of CO2e.

We don’t think that’s good enough, over the month of May we will be working to reduce our carbon emissions further. We will start by ensuring that we are not heating the building unnecessarily over the warmer weather and ensuring all electrical outlets are switched off when the building is closed. The Industry Green tool assumes an average travel emission for each audience member per show, unless we enter data regarding audience travel. The estimated average travel emissions are the biggest contributor to our carbon footprint at present and we’d like to be able to provide the site with more accurate data on audience travel therefore we are conducting an Audience Travel Survey this month. If you would like to help us with this then please click on the link at the end of this article.

Starting Sunday April 25th and lasting through October, the regions biggest public art project will begin to take shape. By Mid-May “Summer of Color” will have turned 158 lifeguard towers on 31 miles of California coast into vibrant floral pieces of public art. On Sunday, volunteers will paint tower railings with one of five colors: yellow, rumba orange, sweat pea, Toronto blue, and crocus petal purple. If you want to volunteer, sign up here.

European Union ministers have called for culture to be put at the “heart” of the blocs new economic plan, the Europe 2020 strategy according to Helen Spongenberg on euobserver.com 4/6/10. It could mean that Europe will invest more in its creative industries as a source of future growth. In late April, the E.U. executive is set to adopt its “Green Paper on Cultural and Creative Industries,” aimed at unlocking the economic potential of cultural and creative industries in Europe, a sector that generates five million jobs and represents 2.6 percent of GDP in the 27-nation bloc. The sector includes areas as diverse as cinema, music, publishing, the media, fashion, interior and product design, cultural tourism, performing arts and heritage. Critics warn that Europe should not neglect cultural diversity and caution against homogenizing European culture.

The third edition of the CSPA Quarterly is now open for submissions. This time around, we’re hoping to cover art made from found objects and existing materials. Spring cleaning for the spring issue, if you will! Many of you are working with existing materials to create work- let us know what you’ve been up to!

Questions to consider: What dictates the “sustainability” of the work? If the found objects are made of plastic, is the work green? If the materials are raw, but held together with chemical adhesives, is the work green? Musicians or media artists: how does using existing material affect the sustainability of culture, and fight against limitations of copyright? Performance and theater artists: are you making work with found objects, set pieces, or written material?

The CSPA Quarterly explores sustainable arts practices in all genres, and views sustainability in the arts through environmentalism, economic stability, and cultural infrastructure. The periodical provides a formal terrain for discussion, and seeks to elevate diverse points of view.

On Saturday, April 25th at 6:30 join ecoartspace in NYC to hear the “I Heart PV” presentation by Christopher Neidl from Solar One. Christopher will give an overview of why solar photovolatics (PV) are a good fit for NYC and the types of policies that the state and city can pursue in order to grow solar’s contribution to our energy mix over time.

Launched by Solar One in 2008, “I Heart PV” is a people powered campaign that mobilizes citizen support for pro-solar policies and educates New Yorkers about the potential and benefits of solar power here in the five boroughs.

The role that art, architecture and design play in land reclamation and urban ecology is topic of an upcoming panel at Parsons the New School for Design in N.Y.C. The panel, set for April 10, 2009, will discuss transdisciplinary fieldwork in art, landscape architecture and industrial reclamation, focusing on the field methods of Land Arts of the American West at Texas Tech and the Incubo Atacama Lab in Chile. Land Arts, directed by Chris Taylor, is a field program that investigates the intersection of geomorphology and human construction beginning with the land and extending through the complex social and ecological processes that produce contemporary landscapes. The Incubo Atacama Lab project began when the curatorial exchange organization Incubo invited Taylor to bring the working methods of Land Arts to Chile. Taylor will participate along with Incubo artists and more.